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A year after the Johns Hopkins University implemented an electronic gunshot detection system around its campus, Baltimore police are trying out the technology in an area where it is likely to be more regularly put to use.
Sheryl Goldstein, director of the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, confirmed that police have recently begun testing a single gunshot sensor in East Baltimore. Dispatchers have been overheard on a city police scanner recently alerting officers to possible gunshot detections along the high-crime Monument Street corridor, though the precise location of the sensor is unclear.
The sensors, marketed by several companies, can track gunfire to within 10 feet of the discharge and are supposed to distinguish gunshots from other city sounds, such as engine backfires and fireworks. Linked with surveillance cameras, the alerts help officials quickly zero in on the area of a suspected shooting, potentially aiding in the pursuit of suspects or speeding up medical care to victims.
"We told all these companies that if they put them up, we'd love live demos to work out kinks and figure out what its capacity is," Goldstein said. "We're really in the beginning phase."
More than 30 cities across the country use some form of the gunshot-sensing technology. In East Orange, N.J., police officials have lauded its gunshot detection system as the city has seen a 63 percent drop in shootings from 2003 to 2008.
It's not without flaws, however. The Boston Globe reported last year that of the more than 30,000 events recorded by the sensors, 98 percent were firecrackers or other loud noises. After spending the first few months dispatching officers to locations where firecrackers were reported, the department learned how to identify most of those incidents and ignore them. Police there credited only 10 arrests to the technology.
Baltimore officials said previous demonstrations had shown "uneven" results, and so far the test sensor in East Baltimore has helped direct camera operators to a shooting, but also has led to several false alarms.
"Up until recently, we hadn't seen any product that demonstrated a likelihood of being able to deliver the type of results worth making the investment," Goldstein said. "The technology has come along, and we're going to keep looking at it and see if it's at the right time."
The Monument Street corridor, which in part divides the Police Department's Eastern and Southeastern districts, has seen much of the city's violence this year. Nine people have been killed this year in the blocks directly to the north and south, not including the nonfatal shootings of 13 people at a cookout in July. Police recently started a Monument Street initiative to better focus crime prevention efforts there.
Goldstein said Safety Dynamics of Tucson, Ariz., provided the sensor.
Hopkins installed the technology on its campus in November, putting 93 sensors around the Homewood-Charles Village area. The Reston, Va., company that sells the SECURES system donated the technology to Hopkins to attract attention from other colleges, the school said.
Edmund G. Skrodzki, Hopkins' director of campus safety and security, said the school's system has alerted officials to six possible gunshots in the area in the past year, one of which was determined conclusively to be a false alarm. "I think it's a very important tool," Skrodzki said.
Sheryl Goldstein, director of the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, confirmed that police have recently begun testing a single gunshot sensor in East Baltimore. Dispatchers have been overheard on a city police scanner recently alerting officers to possible gunshot detections along the high-crime Monument Street corridor, though the precise location of the sensor is unclear.
The sensors, marketed by several companies, can track gunfire to within 10 feet of the discharge and are supposed to distinguish gunshots from other city sounds, such as engine backfires and fireworks. Linked with surveillance cameras, the alerts help officials quickly zero in on the area of a suspected shooting, potentially aiding in the pursuit of suspects or speeding up medical care to victims.
"We told all these companies that if they put them up, we'd love live demos to work out kinks and figure out what its capacity is," Goldstein said. "We're really in the beginning phase."
More than 30 cities across the country use some form of the gunshot-sensing technology. In East Orange, N.J., police officials have lauded its gunshot detection system as the city has seen a 63 percent drop in shootings from 2003 to 2008.
It's not without flaws, however. The Boston Globe reported last year that of the more than 30,000 events recorded by the sensors, 98 percent were firecrackers or other loud noises. After spending the first few months dispatching officers to locations where firecrackers were reported, the department learned how to identify most of those incidents and ignore them. Police there credited only 10 arrests to the technology.
Baltimore officials said previous demonstrations had shown "uneven" results, and so far the test sensor in East Baltimore has helped direct camera operators to a shooting, but also has led to several false alarms.
"Up until recently, we hadn't seen any product that demonstrated a likelihood of being able to deliver the type of results worth making the investment," Goldstein said. "The technology has come along, and we're going to keep looking at it and see if it's at the right time."
The Monument Street corridor, which in part divides the Police Department's Eastern and Southeastern districts, has seen much of the city's violence this year. Nine people have been killed this year in the blocks directly to the north and south, not including the nonfatal shootings of 13 people at a cookout in July. Police recently started a Monument Street initiative to better focus crime prevention efforts there.
Goldstein said Safety Dynamics of Tucson, Ariz., provided the sensor.
Hopkins installed the technology on its campus in November, putting 93 sensors around the Homewood-Charles Village area. The Reston, Va., company that sells the SECURES system donated the technology to Hopkins to attract attention from other colleges, the school said.
Edmund G. Skrodzki, Hopkins' director of campus safety and security, said the school's system has alerted officials to six possible gunshots in the area in the past year, one of which was determined conclusively to be a false alarm. "I think it's a very important tool," Skrodzki said.
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So when the gunfire is "Detected" all it shows is where the gun fire came from...not who pulled the trigger !..because he or she are LONG GONE after that shot is fired !!.seems like a waste of money..
reds147 (10/21/2009, 3:07 PM )